DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0304
284
CATALOGUE OF EARLY CORINTHIAN VASES
c.
376
376 A
377
378
379
Fig. 121 bis.
No. 377.
With linear patterns.
I, band and dot decoration, as fig. 121 b. Vases of
this type are very common in early Corinthian graves
(cf. p. 56) and no doubt go back into
the preceding period; there is a vari-
ant form in which there are no dots:
Lausanne 4304 (Zervos, Rhodes
73)-
II, as fig. 121 bis.1 On mouth,
tongues. This type of decoration,
unlike that of group A, does not de-
rive from the Protocorinthian period,
and is never found on vases of Proto-
corinthian shape. Several examples
have been found in early Corinthian
graves ;2 the type may well have con-
tinued into the early sixth century.
III, black-polychrome, corresponding to the arybal-
loi fig. 126. Delphi (F. de D. v, 141 fig. 569);
Syracuse (N.S. 1895, 174); another from Megara
Hyblaea; Berlin 3698.
IV, black-polychrome, corresponding to the
pointed aryballoi of the type shown in fig. 8 A.
Generally of early shape; late Protocorinthian-
early Corinthian. Delos (Dugas, pi. 29, 384);
Copenhagen (C.V.A. pi. 83, 1, 2); Syracuse,
from tomb 409.
D. The white-dot style.
Groups A-C continue in a broad sense the style and
principles of the late Transitional period; in the
vases which follow, the decoration takes on a new
character. The change is bound up with a new
development, a great increase in the size of the
vase. Other early alabastra are small vases; the size
in the groups which follow may be anything up to
34-5 cm.3 Even on their relatively small vases, late
Protocorinthian and Transitional artists, disliking
to let the figures spread over the curving surface,
were accustomed to divide the decoration into
narrow bands; Corinthian artists, as we have seen,
were not sensitive in this matter, and regularly
decorated small vases with a single large figure or
1 Cf. Graf 406, pi. 15; Eph. Arch. 1910, 289 fig. 9, from
Bassae; Delos (Dugas pi. 28, 382-3); Berlin 3131; several
at Corinth; &c.
2 Syracuse tombs 200 (p. 56) and 241 (N.S. 1895, 139);
Rhitsona tomb 14 (J.H.S. 1910, 351, no. 12); Megara
Hyblaea tomb 734 (cf. no. 215).
3 No. 381.
4 White dots are, of course, found in Mycenaean vase-
painting, in geometric vases like Johansen pi. 8, 5, and
sporadically in the early seventh century (e.g. on the
Aristonothos vase). But here the usage is different; what
group. We now find the expansive tendency at its
fullest; even vases over 12 inches in height are decor-
ated with a single sprawling design. Many vases of
this new type are painted in the ' white-dot style'.
The trick of marking the different regions of the
figure or pattern by rows of white dots, which follow
the incised lines, is something quite new. It is un-
known, not only on the small alabastra hitherto men-
tioned, but also in all earlier vase-painting at Corinth.4
And even now it remains peculiar to certain groups
of vases: thus we rarely find it on oinochoai, never
on kotylai, amphorae, or pyxides before the latest
period; we find it on certain well denned groups of
alabastra and aryballoi, but not on alabastra or
aryballoi in general. I have no doubt that the origin
of this device is to be sought outside the field of
ceramics; the clue is given by many archaic bronzes
with decoration incised or in relief—notably several
of the mitrae from Axos, now at Canea, and various
'Argive-Corinthian' plaques. Perhaps the clearest
illustration of the connexion with bronze work is
Fig. 122. From a bronze helmet.
given by the fine helmet of Protocorinthian style
in the Louvre (de Ridder ii, pi. 65, 1101), a
detail of which is shown in fig. 122.
A second feature of the white-dot style—the
systematic overloading of the field with filling orna-
is characteristic of the Corinthian practice is the use of
dots in close conjunction with the incised lines. This
mannerism spread from Corinth to other parts of Greece.
We find it occasionally in late Rhodian, along with the
Corinthian technique (fragment in Oxford: Miss Price
tells me there are one or two other instances), in Clazo-
menian, Attic, Boeotian, and Italo-Corinthian (Etruscan)
vases CS.H. figs. 80, 84, &c). At Corinth it lasted into the
late period (cf. pi. 35,4-6). On no. 385, one or two of the
'rosettes' are marked with white lines to imitate incision,
as in later Melian vases, Clazomenian sarcophagi, &c.
CATALOGUE OF EARLY CORINTHIAN VASES
c.
376
376 A
377
378
379
Fig. 121 bis.
No. 377.
With linear patterns.
I, band and dot decoration, as fig. 121 b. Vases of
this type are very common in early Corinthian graves
(cf. p. 56) and no doubt go back into
the preceding period; there is a vari-
ant form in which there are no dots:
Lausanne 4304 (Zervos, Rhodes
73)-
II, as fig. 121 bis.1 On mouth,
tongues. This type of decoration,
unlike that of group A, does not de-
rive from the Protocorinthian period,
and is never found on vases of Proto-
corinthian shape. Several examples
have been found in early Corinthian
graves ;2 the type may well have con-
tinued into the early sixth century.
III, black-polychrome, corresponding to the arybal-
loi fig. 126. Delphi (F. de D. v, 141 fig. 569);
Syracuse (N.S. 1895, 174); another from Megara
Hyblaea; Berlin 3698.
IV, black-polychrome, corresponding to the
pointed aryballoi of the type shown in fig. 8 A.
Generally of early shape; late Protocorinthian-
early Corinthian. Delos (Dugas, pi. 29, 384);
Copenhagen (C.V.A. pi. 83, 1, 2); Syracuse,
from tomb 409.
D. The white-dot style.
Groups A-C continue in a broad sense the style and
principles of the late Transitional period; in the
vases which follow, the decoration takes on a new
character. The change is bound up with a new
development, a great increase in the size of the
vase. Other early alabastra are small vases; the size
in the groups which follow may be anything up to
34-5 cm.3 Even on their relatively small vases, late
Protocorinthian and Transitional artists, disliking
to let the figures spread over the curving surface,
were accustomed to divide the decoration into
narrow bands; Corinthian artists, as we have seen,
were not sensitive in this matter, and regularly
decorated small vases with a single large figure or
1 Cf. Graf 406, pi. 15; Eph. Arch. 1910, 289 fig. 9, from
Bassae; Delos (Dugas pi. 28, 382-3); Berlin 3131; several
at Corinth; &c.
2 Syracuse tombs 200 (p. 56) and 241 (N.S. 1895, 139);
Rhitsona tomb 14 (J.H.S. 1910, 351, no. 12); Megara
Hyblaea tomb 734 (cf. no. 215).
3 No. 381.
4 White dots are, of course, found in Mycenaean vase-
painting, in geometric vases like Johansen pi. 8, 5, and
sporadically in the early seventh century (e.g. on the
Aristonothos vase). But here the usage is different; what
group. We now find the expansive tendency at its
fullest; even vases over 12 inches in height are decor-
ated with a single sprawling design. Many vases of
this new type are painted in the ' white-dot style'.
The trick of marking the different regions of the
figure or pattern by rows of white dots, which follow
the incised lines, is something quite new. It is un-
known, not only on the small alabastra hitherto men-
tioned, but also in all earlier vase-painting at Corinth.4
And even now it remains peculiar to certain groups
of vases: thus we rarely find it on oinochoai, never
on kotylai, amphorae, or pyxides before the latest
period; we find it on certain well denned groups of
alabastra and aryballoi, but not on alabastra or
aryballoi in general. I have no doubt that the origin
of this device is to be sought outside the field of
ceramics; the clue is given by many archaic bronzes
with decoration incised or in relief—notably several
of the mitrae from Axos, now at Canea, and various
'Argive-Corinthian' plaques. Perhaps the clearest
illustration of the connexion with bronze work is
Fig. 122. From a bronze helmet.
given by the fine helmet of Protocorinthian style
in the Louvre (de Ridder ii, pi. 65, 1101), a
detail of which is shown in fig. 122.
A second feature of the white-dot style—the
systematic overloading of the field with filling orna-
is characteristic of the Corinthian practice is the use of
dots in close conjunction with the incised lines. This
mannerism spread from Corinth to other parts of Greece.
We find it occasionally in late Rhodian, along with the
Corinthian technique (fragment in Oxford: Miss Price
tells me there are one or two other instances), in Clazo-
menian, Attic, Boeotian, and Italo-Corinthian (Etruscan)
vases CS.H. figs. 80, 84, &c). At Corinth it lasted into the
late period (cf. pi. 35,4-6). On no. 385, one or two of the
'rosettes' are marked with white lines to imitate incision,
as in later Melian vases, Clazomenian sarcophagi, &c.